Why taking on too much is actually bad for you

I constantly over commit myself. Constantly. I always try to work on too many goals at one time. This is never good because I never get everything done, and then I get behind in my projects, and then I feel bad about not being able to get more done. I always feel like I have so much to do, and no time to do it, which makes me feel stressed out.

So, a new task of mine is going to be to cut down on my goals, and focus on less at one time.

Right now I have 5 major goal categories, with 8 sub categories……each of these sub categories has multiple goals in them…..this is great for planning what I want to do, but there is way too much in there to focus on and become excellent at.

From today on, I am going to pick my top 3 goals for each month, and work on those.

What are your monthly goal plans, and what do those look like?

Advertisement

Starting the next chapter in my book of Life

Good morning readers!

This month is packed full of powerful energy shifts, which started with the Virgo New Moon on September 1st, followed by the Pisces Harvest Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse September 16th last night (and I am really feeling the effects today), followed by the upcoming New Moon on September 30th.

I love this Zodiac Guide for 2016 – it has been so true for me so far!

This morning was strange for me, it was emotionally charged and after a restful sleep in and lounging in bed, I just felt like I wanted to cry. Do you ever have those moments where emotion seems to grab hold of you and you feel a bit lost? It’s easy to let irrational emotional thoughts take hold of us at this point. I messaged a friend of mine this morning while this was happening, and she helped me ground myself and step back from the emotion by reminding me that the irrationality is not from the present moment, it is from the past and other circumstances. After this, I sat quietly for a while to examine the emotions I was experiencing, and I also journaled to understand what I was going through.

What I learned was that the shift I have been experiencing has been a lot more powerful than I realized. This month I have been experiencing a shift to focus more on myself – self-love, health, wellness, building my career, excelling at my career and restarting my Wellness Project to achieve harmony with my Mind, Body and Soul.

I have been experiencing confirmation after confirmation that I am on the right path, with all of the subtle and not so subtle signs I have been receiving. One very important thing I should point out is that being open to receiving, seeing, acknowledging and learning from these signs has been a very important part of my transformation.  It was my birthday on Thursday September 15th, and I received 2 gifts which were both signs I loved. One was a beautiful Blue Agate stone which is helpful for balancing energies of the mind, body and soul. The other was the book The 52 Lists Project – A Year of Weekly Journaling Inspiration by Moorea Seal. Both gifts were signs of healing, letting go and embracing positive change by focusing on the things that bring me joy, peace, and happiness.

I had planned for today to be a celebration with friends as well, but very few people were free, so this was a sign to me that I needed to embrace this quiet time for myself to reflect and here I am writing to you. 🙂 I am glad to have some quiet time to be honest. It’s during this time that I am able to rejuvenate myself and focus on my goals while learning from my recent experiences…..so I am grateful for the time to do this today. I was able to turn my emotionally charged morning into a day of reflection and growth, which is exactly what I should have done. Rather than get upset by the emotions, I allowed myself to experience them, and understand them, which has lead to some personal growth and understanding today. I hope that my experience has inspired you to understand your emotions more fully!

I am now going to go work on my Healthy Habit Challenge project that helps YOU (and me 😉 ) create a Lifestyle of Healthy Habits while living Mindfully and Positively. Check it out HERE.

 

 

 

How I’m creating my daily routine & why having a routine can save us time

Good morning readers!

I am writing today about my daily routine. Part of this is going to be blogging daily, so cheers to a fresh start!

Some benefits of creating a strong daily routine are:

  • Routine provides us with a sense of structure – you have order and organization in your life, you are in control
  • Building strong and healthy habits -repeating positive and rewarding actions daily helps you create healthy habits that will last a lifetime
  • Productivity and efficiency increase – being focused and organized helps you minimize distractions and concentrate on completing tasks (one at a time, not multitasking)
  • We become really good at what we do – repeating tasks daily helps us save time by not letting tasks pile up, and we don’t have to search for motivation because having an established routine means we act on autopilot
  • We start our day with clarity and calmness – writing out the thoughts that clutter our minds each morning by using the Morning Pages technique helps us start our day with clarity and calmness because we can focus on our priorities, not our “monkey mind” and scattered thoughts – because those have all been written down and released

 

Something that helps me work on solidifying my routine is having one list of things I want to achieve daily. I have this written in one place, and I have a daily checklist which I complete. I have previously had multiple checklists in different programs, and it simply creates more work, and hampers my efficiency in getting things done daily. Having to remember where I’ve written something creates stress and confusion, so I strongly suggest writing everything in one book, or using one app if you prefer electronic based lists.

This morning I just started writing my morning pages, while having tea and breakfast. If you don’t know what morning pages are, they are a brain dump of all of the cluttering thoughts in your mind. Getting these out on paper first thing in the morning helps you have clarity and prepare better for your day. So far, I absolutely love it! This process was created by Julia Cameron, and she describes them HERE.

Another bonus of having a routine is that once we have completed our tasks, we can spend more time working on other projects. I’d love to spend some time taking photography classes, or traveling more. I’d also like to complete my Healthy Habit Challenge program and Smoothie E-Book – I can’t wait to finish these so I can share them with you!

Even though you may not complete your checklist each day, keep going, because a step forward means you are a step ahead. If you didn’t even attempt to complete your list, you are falling behind and tasks are piling up. So, working on establishing a routine will help you reach your goals faster and more efficiently.

Daily actions help create long term-term habits – what are you working on today?

Why working towards a strong daily routine makes me feel amazing

Working on a strong daily routine is both exciting and frustrating. It’s not an overnight thing either, a lot of time goes in to building the right routine for you, as it’s not one size fits all.

I have revised my current routine many times, as I find out that my original ideas haven’t worked perfectly, I keep trying something new to find the best fit for me.

In the process of creating a strong daily routine, I am finding out just how good it feels to re-organize things to a way that suits my current needs. I feel accomplished when I have spent a day focusing on, and achieving the goals I have set out for that day. Being successful releases a lot of good feelings, which helps us stay in a positive mind frame.

Something I think that helps to create a productive day is TIME BLOCKING. Time blocking is a great way to pre-plan your day, have a specific amount of time to work on your tasks, and a great way to stay accountable to yourself and track your progress. For a free spirited person like me, pre-planning can be hard, because I don’t often stick to the plan. This is another reason I am trying to make this part of my daily routine, so I can be more productive.

Today I worked on organizing my notebooks, as I find that writing things down in too many places is quite stressful, because I don’t know where to look for what I need. So I wrote out a list of the notebooks I have, and what each of them will be used for based on the way I have used them previously. I want to keep my daily notebooks to a minimum, so I have a daily planner, a journal, an online note taking program and a working project binder. I want my daily routine to be as simple as possible – having it too complex is totally overwhelming and confusing.

I only want to have to take my daytimer with me when I go out. Hence the desire for an online note taking system – I use EVERNOTE. I also have a spot in my daytimer for jotting down some quick notes that I can transfer to my master lists at the end of the day.

At the end of the day, routines are constantly evolving, and while I’m not sure if one will ever be perfect, I do know that creating a great one that works for you will increase your happiness, make you more productive, improve time management skills, and will lead you to a more successful life.

Share your success stories below and let us know what works best for you! 🙂

 

 

I’m not making New Year’s Resolutions….instead, I’m upgrading my Wellness Lifestyle Routine!

Good evening and Happy New Year!

This is an exciting time of year, where people get revved up to make New Year’s Resolutions and all kinds of new goals…..which often get left by the wayside a few weeks into the new year. According to research, only 8% of people actually achieve their New Year’s Resolutions and Goals! That is pretty pitiful, considering we have the capability to completely change our lives. So why aren’t people achieving their goals?

A New Year’s resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western Hemisphere but also found in the Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person makes a promise to do an act of self-improvement or something slightly nice, such as opening doors for people beginning from New Year’s Day.[1]

I myself have made New Year’s Resolutions many times, only to realize later that I tried to do too much at once, instead of focusing on one goal at a time, or one step at a time.

Now, in the start of 2016, I’ve decided not to make resolutions. Instead, I’m focusing my attention on MAKING MYSELF A BETTER VERSION of who I was yesterday. After all, what are we achieving if we are not taking action to learn, grow, and excel towards our goals?

This year, I am going to spend time working towards my goals by taking actions that are specific to my goals. For instance: I love to read. I want to read more often, so I plan to read things that will further my knowledge in things like cooking and exercise because eating clean and getting fit are two of my big picture goals.

I also plan to exercise more often and get outside to try new trails for hiking, snowshoeing and running to help me get in shape and increase my fitness level.

I want to educate myself on techniques to simplify life and eradicate mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression so I can better help my clients who want to change their lives.

I’m working on a 28 DAY HEALTHY HABIT CHALLENGE to start the year off right by creating positive habits that will last 🙂

How would you like to try being Vegan and eating Plant Based for a month? Thousands of others are giving it a try HERE.

Comment below and let me know what Healthy Habits you want to master, and let’s try them together this month!

How learning to say “NO” changed my life and helped me learn self-care

I’m sure at some point most people want to say “NO” to certain people and situations. Haven’t we all? Saying no to the partner who doesn’t treat us right, or the boss who asks us to do something we don’t agree with, or the friend who lies to us and we still are friends with them.

I used to be that person who put up with these kinds of situations. The unhealthy relationships, the jerk bosses and the friends who don’t deserve to be in my life. It drained me. It sucked the life out of me, and I gave up on being happy about my future. It was depressing.

One day earlier this year I put my foot down, and started saying “NO” to these situations….and things started to turn around for me in a positive way.

Continue reading

How to be Happy

In a world where drama is celebrated more than compassion, how do you Stay Happy?

Some people will tell you it’s impossible. Those people are probably sitting at home with a bag of chips watching tv instead of working towards their goals.

It really IS possible, and it’s a lot easier than you think. Read on. Continue reading

When good things happen

I have been feeling down lately because of my tailbone injury. I never imagined how much life could be different and how we take things for granted such as being able to comfortably sit down. Having to lay on my stomach all the time has gotten frustrating but its part of trying to heal. After 6 weeks i have gotten tired of it and really frustrated. I have been aware of some good things happening to me as if to say ‘don’t give up.’ Continue reading

Day 3 ~ I feel happy and balanced

Yesterday I have a good day. Being positive really does feel good. Trying to stop negative thoughts when they happen really makes a big difference too. I couldn’t sleep after I was annoyed last night, so I was wide awake at 1am and started reading this book called Paving It Forward by Elisabeth Fayt. It’s really quite an interesting book, and a great way to start making being positive a real habit. Continue reading